Nate Oats knows Alabama is similar to UConn, making the Final Four matchup Saturday night all the more fascinating.
Now it’s a question if the underdog Crimson Tide can actually beat the Huskies. UConn is gunning for its second straight national title while Alabama is in its first Final Four.
Oats can look to the other sideline and see Dan Hurley going nuts and instilling toughness in his team. It seems like the teams have similar personalities.
“I mean, the similarities, Danny, everybody makes it out to be like we’re the ones doing all the analytics and efficiency,” Oats said. “Danny is about that stuff, too. Me and Danny have talked about it. They’re trying to get the most efficient shots they can. Trying to force inefficient shots. They do it a little bit differently because they have a post player in Clingan they can go to. We don’t play through the post as much.
“They like to shoot a lot of threes, too. Every big run I’ve seen them make, they made plenty of threes. They take threes in the break, like we take ’em.”
Oats also discussed the differences between Alabama and UConn and why the two teams are unique.
“Now, we play a little more loose and free in the halfcourt,” Oats said. “They’re a little more set oriented. They’re going to run a set every time they don’t score quickly in a transition break. Our guys play a little bit more in a flow.”
Overall though, the game could be close considering both teams are very similar, according to Oats.
“Probably a lot more similarities than there are differences,” Oats said. “He does a good job with the sets. And then obviously attacking Clingan. Well, Illinois tried to go right at him, and I think they were 0-19 on shots that Clingan contested. Probably not the best plan of attack. We have played against Edey, we played against Kalkbrenner, we played against Jonas Aidoo at Tennessee. We played against some real shot-blockers. We’ve had some success with them.
“Can you pull them away from the rim? We can play Grant Nelson at the five some, if he’s making shots. There’s other things you can do. But we certainly aren’t going to just drive the ball at him and expect to score over the top of him all night. That didn’t seem to work very well their last game out.”
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